AIDS - A Metaphor of Our Times

In AIDS, Passageway to Transformation, Norm Shealy, MD, PhD, and Caroline Myss, MA, present their thesis that the planet itself has AIDS, and that epidemics of any kind have a direct relation to the emotional, psychological, and spiritual health of groups of people, even if the "group" identified is an entire nation. The idea that "what is in one, is in the whole" may well be emerging as a fundamental principle of life.

They propose that AIDS has manifested as a result of specific stress factors shared by a majority of people on this planet, and that the planet itself is experiencing the same stress factors. They offer background material on previous epidemics to illustrate that intense conditions of stress have consistently produced disease, and that the quality of health has always been intimately connected to environmental factors. For example, major twentieth century epidemics include influenza and poliomyelitis, the latter being an especially graphic example of the relationship between the origin of a disease and society-wide psychological and emotional stresses. The polio epidemic occurred during and after the Great Depression that economically paralyzed the US and most of Europe. They ask us to consider "is it coincidence that a literally crippling disease came into being at this time?"

Shealy and Myss examine the occurrence of epidemics in terms of society-wide emotional/psychological stress factors, proposing it may be that epidemics, such as AIDS, are part of the larger patterns through which the collective consciousness of humanity is releasing negativity. They suggest that if this is so, we may be discovering we participate in a consciousness that is made up of all humanity and that this consciousness is connected directly to the creation of planetary events - such as wars and epidemics - in the same manner that our individual consciousnesses are connected directly to our physical bodies. Then AIDS would be calling us to a new awareness of ourselves, of others, and of our responsibilities for each other. (continues)

*In The Creation of Health, they examine the link of other major illnesses, such as cancer and chronic pain, to the greater planetary body.